Nintendo, E3, and The Competition

Although today is the official start of E3, yesterday was pretty revealing.

By now, you surely know that the Xbox One will retail for a whopping $499 and will launch on November 21st in various markets. They blasted us with game after game after game during their presentation, however it was fairly predictable in nature. The always on requirement was confirmed (Must connect once every 24 hour period, but who will do that? It is easier to just leave it on) and used games are essentially left up to the developer to decide on-luckily Ubisoft has stated that their decision to charge, or not charge, will be consistent between consoles. I would guess that this means they will not charge to play used games. Overall, the Microsoft Xbox One presentation was so-so, until the price was announced…then things got ugly. Scouring the internet, I found only 2 or 3 people willing to pay the price for the console.

Sony started off slow. I will admit, I was a bit bored but soon found little jabs at the Xbox One inserted into their presentation. The opening animation contained a box with the familiar triangle, square, circle, and x on its sides. Their quick showing of the mutli-entertainment features such as Netflix, and such was fast and focused more on the Sony products that you will be able to access than how it will dominate the system. I think that the casing design for the PS4 is also a little jab at the One, as in appearance it looks similar, except they added angles, made it a bit sleeker, and made it look sexy. The gameplay demos were great, even though there were a few glitches (At least we didn’t have wonderbook), and then they hit back hard at Microsoft. BAM! Versus XII became Final Fantasy XV (I literally screamed like a girl, yelled out that I called it over a year ago, and kissed my little chihuahua/rat terrier mix on the lips) and then they teased and officially announced Kingdom Hearts III. Let me tell you, if you know me, and my love for Kingdom Hearts, you can only imagine my joy. I cannot repeat what I yelled out in excitement, but obscenities were tossed, tears leaked, and a perma-smile appeared on my face. After that, what else could make the presentation better? Well, they didn’t stop there, the greatness kept coming. Destiny was up soon and it looks fan-freakin-tastic! I think that Halo needs to be a bit worried. Near the end we found that the console will only cost us $399. In the end, Sony destroyed Microsoft this year. In fact, I found at least five die hard Xbox fanboys denounce their allegiance to the console last night!

Now, today, we get to see what Nintendo has for us. After watching the presentations last night, I think it is safe to say that Nintendo was very smart for sticking with Nintendo Directs instead of trying to battle it out on stage. They have more control in their presentations. Now, they can tailor their announcements to battle specific portions of their competitors reveals. In a normal presentation, they would have been stuck with a more rigid presentation, but now they can be more fluid. At this point, I don’t know that we will see a price drop her than bringing the deluxe to $299 and recalling the basic set. Maybe we will get a new SKU, but I am doubtful. After the Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III announcement, I expect to see some Zelda HD news, and maybe Rare’s new game. I really hope to see a massive Role Playing game announced (if it was a Pokemon, Ninty would dominate…I can dream right?) and a massive FPS.

Nintendo’s Directs are spread throughout the day (see the schedule below), so be sure to stay tuned to Infendo for updates on the happenings! Also, check out the forums and the E3 Discussion thread to chat about the news.

Essel Pratt has spent his life exploring his imagination and dreams. As a Husband and a Father, he doesn't have as much time to write as he would like. However, his mind is always plotting out his next story. Someday he hopes to quit the 9-5 grind and focus on writing full time. Currently, Essel has three published short stories and is working on a handful of novels. Essel focuses his writings on mostly Horror/Sci-Fi, however is known to add a dash of other genres into his writings as well. In his spare time, he can be found playing one of the 40+ video game consoles in his collection, especially his Wii U (NNID: EsselPratt). Click the links below to follow Essel's exploits in the writing world, and be sure to follow his blog at http://esselpratt.blogspot.com/ as well as his articles on Nerdzy.com.